The Board of VPDF’s Council, meeting on November 6, decided to promote in the coming months several research projects, one of which related specifically to the world financial crisis and its impacts on Vietnam..Others concern EU-ASEAN Free Trade Agreements and utilization of a market economy for social development purposes.

For two and a half years, the Japanese Sasakawa Peace Foundation has been financing community development projects in three Vietnamese provinces, with VPDF as a link organization.The projects started in 2006 after a joint study had concluded that Japan was very successful in cooperative activities targeting the development of production and tourism and improvement of the people’s living standards, and that exchanges of experience, financed by Sasakawa Peace Foundation, would be of great help to Vietnamese local communities.

A “new, fundamental and comprehensive” education reform has been recommended by a group of senior researchers, all with decades of experience related to issues of education and training.The recommendation was finalized on October 30 after a year-long study sponsored by VPDF.

A representative of VPDF, Mr. Đôn Tuấn Phong, attending a recent conference in Beijing under the theme “Sustainable Development and Green Olympics” expressed warm support for the event and its spirit of peace and sustainable development.

“Addressing the question of democracy, one should find answers to three main questions: who wields the instruments of power? how are these instruments used? and in whose interests?” So says a concept paper finalized by a VPDF-hosted international roundtable held in Hanoi on September 25-26. Concerning the substance of democracy and democratization, the paper reads: “In the people lies the decisive strength for the development of all nations and humankind.